Method of high timing resolution pulse synthesis based on virtual sampling

Abstract

Adjustable-width pulse signals are widely used in systems such as test equipment for hold time, response time and radar testing. In this study, we proposed a pulse generation method based on virtual sampling with ultra-high pulse width resolution. In the proposed method, the sampling rate of a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) was adjusted to considerably improve pulse width resolution. First, the sampling rate was matched with the target pulse width resolution to digitally sample the ideal signal and generate digital waveform sampling points. Next, the signal bandwidth of the DAC was matched using a low-pass digital filter. Finally, the waveform sampling points were downsampled using an integer factor and output after digital-to-analogue conversion. The waveform pulse width information generated by high-frequency digital sampling was passed step by step and retained in the final output analogue signal. A DAC with a sampling rate of 1.25 GSa/s was used, and the pulse width resolution of the pulse signal was 0.1 ns. Theoretically, a sampling rate of 10 GSa/s is required to achieve 0.1 ns resolution. This method is simple, has a low cost, and exhibits excellent performance.

Keywords

• pulse synthesis
• high resolution
• virtual sampling
• digital-to-analogue conversion
• downsampling